WALK WITH ME
I was 24 years old when I first launched Fantasy Uprising, a T.A.G. BBS serving the Houston metro area. Those were wild times. I’ll never forget one night when the entire system crashed, my co-sysop showed up at my apartment at 1:00 AM, lugging his whole desktop computer. While he rebuilt our ANSI screens, I worked feverishly on restoring the T.A.G. code, doors, and message boards. It was an all-nighter fueled by determination, not coffee. That’s when I learned two things: the importance of community and the power of resilience.
Running that BBS taught me something else too, the people. The connections I made in those days have lasted decades; I’m still friends with many of my users and fellow sysops. For me, the BBS was more than technology; it was a community bound together by curiosity, creativity, and friendship.
At the same time, I was climbing in my professional life. As a Manager of Business Technologies for an international office supply company in Southeast Texas, I was helping bridge the gap between people and systems. One of my proudest achievements came in 1995: helping build one of the earliest online ordering programs using Access database forms, Palm Pilots, and dial-up modems. We enabled clients to place office supply orders from their fingertips long before “e-commerce” was even a buzzword.
Technology has been my world since 1988, and over the years I’ve worked across roles, industries, and platforms. But I’ve always been chasing one thing: how to build systems that are both meaningful and lasting.
That passion led me to pursue something I’ve dreamed about since the early days: Artificial Intelligence. When East Texas A&M announced a brand-new Master’s program in Computer Science with a concentration in AI, I knew I had to be part of it. I’ll be graduating as part of the program’s first class in December 2026. My focus areas are Natural Language Processing and Large Language Models, with a special passion for Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). I believe RAG is the key to helping small businesses amplify their voice without the massive costs of training custom models.
But this journey isn’t just about academics — it’s about creating. Out of nostalgia and curiosity, I revisited the idea of my old BBS. After battling with T.A.G. in DOSBox, I realized I could reimagine it with modern tools. That project became Retro42BBS: an ANSI-driven system powered by .NET 8, PostgreSQL, and TTYD. One of my most rewarding moments? Watching those colorful ANSI menus scroll across the screen, alive again in a modern form.
Parallel to Retro42BBS came DM42, my AI Dungeon Master. Imagine it’s late at night and you want to dive into a fantasy adventure, but none of your friends are around. Enter DM42: a game master who can transport you to the world of Tharendell, guiding you through traps, kobolds, and epic quests, all with the help of custom-trained NPC companions. My favorite NPC is Kadines, inspired by the very first character I ever played back in the late ’70s: Sir Kadines the Mystic, a half-elf ranger who fought alongside his battle cat, Heimo.
Through all of this, my philosophy has stayed consistent: you can’t rush perfection. I believe in the “triangle rule” — fast, cheap, quality — but you can only ever pick two. My instinct is always to chase quality, even if it takes longer, because great work should stand the test of time.
Beyond technology, I’ve never stopped learning. I taught myself to weld just because I wanted to. I’m a master woodworker, a farmer, and an adventurer at heart. I believe that no matter how old you are, there’s always something new to learn, build, or create.
If there’s one message my journey leaves behind, it’s this: Do your best. It won’t always be perfect, but it will always be you. Don’t bend yourself to please others — believe in yourself, and others will believe in you.
Babble Baz